Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, has assessed that the negotiations for "reconciliation" and "full communion" with the SSPX are going to continue normally, in spite of the creation, September 8th, of the Institute of the Good Shepherd. Interviewed on September 21st by I Media press, a partner of Apic in Rome, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei affirmed that the Church has "confidence" in the members of the new Institute which accommodates former priests and seminarians, followers of Archbishop Lefebvre.

I.Media Why approve the erection of the Institute of the Good Shepherd? What is the meaning of this gesture?

Cardinal Hoyos: The erection of an Institute of pontifical right is not an extraordinary thing, but a return to the ordinary practice of the Church's life, which offers to people devoted to God a juridical structure. We thus offer the occasion for them to exercise their ministry in the best possible way, through their specific identity which they also live in communion with the Church their mother. In the case of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, we are face to face with the emergence of a particular priestly reality, which began by placing its ministry ordered to the service of the faithful attached to the preceding liturgical and disciplinary tradition of the Church, in their guaranteeing a liturgical, pastoral and spiritual service adapted to their legitimate needs. The reason for this approval is all there. It was done with the sign of a reciprocal confidence: the Church as mother has confidence in the children who want to serve it, and her children trust in their turn, by putting at the service of the Church of our time their efforts, their time, their prayers, their joys and their sufferings...

I.Media: Does this action put in danger negotiations with the SSPX?

Cardinal Hoyos: I do not see clearly any logic in this question. Why should a gesture like that of the erection of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, accomplished under the sign of reconciliation and full communion found in the Church, should call in question another process, which must also be carried out with a sign of reconciliation and full communion? Moreover, these two realities are quite distinct between them, they are on different levels and thus need different approaches.

I.Media: With this new institute, the Mass of St. Pius V as an extraordinary form of the Roman rite seems reinforced. Is this the case?

Cardinal Hoyos: This question to me also seems to go beyond what really occurred. When the Holy See approves an institute, in our case the Good Shepherd, it approves the reality which arises with it. The rite of Saint Pius V was never excluded from the life of the Church, and this is why, at this institute, as well as the rest of the of the other ecclesial realities, the old rite was conceded as a proper rite, for its members as well as for the faithful who are attached to it.